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Saturday 5/25/13 9:30 08 54.873 S 140 06.079 W http://maps.google.com/?z=7&t=k&q=loc:08%2054.873S%20140%2006.079W Baie De Taiohae – Nuku Hiva Posting by Barb: It was only an 8 mile sail from Baie Du Controleur to Baie De Taiohae. The bay is fairly long so we had to motor out for a while until we got to open sea. We spotted some more Manta Rays and I think Dennis would have jumped in again had we not put away our Dingy. It was an easy sail with about 10 knots of wind. When we pulled into Bay De Taiohae there were about 40 sail boats here. The bay used to be a volcanic crater and the south facing side of the crater collapsed and created the bay. By chance we ended up anchoring next to the Vancouver couple, Rick and Kira, which was nice as we have a great time with them. We have been in Taiohae for a week and are now moving on. It has been great to have internet again, although not cheap, and we have re-connected with many family and friends. The internet is very slow during the day so we have gotten into a schedule where we are in bed by 7:30 (it gets dark here by 6:30) and we are up at 3:00 am making phone calls and sending emails. Even then, the internet was unreliable. We have walked from one end of town to the other many times and we have found 2 grocery stores (the size of a 7-11), a small hardware store which is behind a counter so everything you need requires a clerk who barely speaks English, 3 restaurants as well as a nice water front dock with a few more open snack bar type restaurants and a few stores. There is also a 3 star resort here which seems to be for the most part deserted. We have gone out a couple of times to enjoy the local cooking and also had a night of Pizza and beer, much to Dennis’s delight. I am still waiting for the place that will serve wings and beer (there seem to be enough chickens running around free to make that possible)! We have also had a movie night out with Rick and Kira to watch some French Polynesia documentaries (one about the nuclear testing in the Tuamoto by the French Government which had English sub-titles and another about locals of Vanuatu attempting to make a living by entertaining tourists with re-enactments of the way they hunted-trapped humans when cannibalism was an accepted practice (this one was in French only but we could interpret the jest of the story line). The best part was that the little theater was air conditioned and for the first time in 60 days we were actually cold! On one of our daily walks we stopped at the dock and watched some local fishermen cleaning their Yellow Fin Tuna fish catch. We wanted to see how they cleaned it and learn from it so we would know what to do the next time we catch our fish. They were throwing the fish remnants into the water and the water was just boiling and churning with sharks all fighting for the fish snacks. There were about 10 of them and all about 5-6 feet long. After that we were extra careful getting in and out of the dingy and climb the slippery ladder to the dock. We decided to take on the project of fixing our Auto Pilot. We will need it for the longer sails. One of the things we had to determine was if it was fixable or whether we would have to purchase a new Auto Pilot. So we tore the boat apart, took out all our tools and emptied out the lasarette which holds our generator, 100 lb’s of spare line, spare anchor and many other important spare parts. Dennis contorted himself into a little ball and crawled into the 4 foot space where the Auto Pilot is located. It was no easy feat to disassemble the base which was corroded and completely seized up and no longer rotating the way it was supposed to (no wonder it quit working). With the help of the internet and a B&G technician in Florida we managed to get the help we needed to bleed the RAM and get it working. The base we took to the Yacht Services who would, for a price, bring it to a mechanic with the right tools (a torch) to make the corroded base rotate again. From there we had to use some creativity to come up with the tools to bleed the RAM. And if you all know Dennis, we creatively fixed the Auto Pilot. Yes, we are good to go! So we have re-filled the propane tank, re-fueled the boat, bought a few fresh vegetables, fruit and French Baguettes and we will be leaving here shortly. We plan to make a one to two night anchorage stop at Bay de Taioa, about 5 miles from here, and then on to the last island we will visit in the Marquesa, Ua Pou. We have a tighter timeline now because we have to get to Tahiti by June 28th as Pat Moriarity is coming for a 17 day visit. Yay!! We are so excited. We welcome visits from friends, especially since our ‘bed bug’ issue is no longer an issue, we think?